Taking a Long View

Late September has always been a favourite time of mine. Not only is it my birthday month but each one brings forth memories of cold crispy Autumn weather in England when I was a child. Here in the South of France however, the sun continues to shine, unwilling to let go of the summer and as I write this morning sitting at our garden table watching the morning light softly bathing the Church, a handful of metres away, I know there is nowhere else I would rather be.

Having already transformed our house from a rather sad individual, seemingly craving attention, to a warm and welcoming home over the last 7 months we are able to sit back and take a good view in our minds as to the next stage of renovation. Although we have a very long way to go (we have yet to touch our huge top floor with its views over the rooftops) we have taken the view that it is important to enjoy life and do as the French do: work to live, not live to work. The view of our visitors is interesting too. Having had several members of our family and dear friends to stay over the last few months, Mr. Fix It and I noticed that every one of them seems relaxed and happy here. We don’t have a kitchen yet, no wardrobes to speak of, the garden is yet to be tackled and the sun lights up the dust and dirt but the only comments we have had from our guests have been along the lines of “This is wonderful, I wish we could stay longer.” “The house is fabulous, what a find, I wish we could do something like this.” It is a delight to see our house through the eyes of others.

Last weekend was a celebration of “patrimoine” or heritage. France’s Heritage Days give visitors a chance to peep behind the doors of many historical monuments and thus it was that the Mayor offered guided visits up to the bell tower of our Church. Mr. Fix It climbed the 200 steps to the top with his camera – he had always wanted to inspect the roof of our house. “To have a bird’s eye view for a minute was stunning,” he reported. “What a sight!”



Thanks to a good word from our Mayor, Gaz de France will start the work to connect natural gas to our house on October 11th. An extremely jolly little man turned up on Monday with plans and photographs of the existing gas point and the run through to our house. He told me he had been to see the Mayor who had pretty much told him to “get on with it” since the village will be making improvements to the paving in due course between our house and the Church and the gas connection must of course be carried out in advance. We have 9 cast iron radiators ready to go and now must source a boiler and work out pipe runs under the kitchen floor – easily done at this stage. Although it is hard to imagine needing heating as I write in the sunshine, I think back to early March when we arrived here, lighting 4 log fires each evening to keep warm. What a joy it will be to have central heating this coming winter!

Meanwhile we take great delight in taking a long view, looking at the larger picture and a birthday trip to the Pyrenees this week allowed us to do so in style. There is so very much to be enjoyed in this beautiful country.



Alexis
http://www.francebuyingguide.com/

Letting in the late summer sun

Renovating a large house such as this one takes time, thought and massive energy. Being blessed by the Mediterranean sunshine every day however, fuels all three. Mr. Fix It continues to amaze me with his effortless enthusiasm and ability to restore our property sympathetically. This week he has worked tirelessly to fine tune the 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms we now have up and running. Although it will be some time before they are “finished” (we have yet to decorate, put in wardrobes, finish off the lighting etc.) they are each beginning to look rather like some grand country house hotel rooms and we take great delight in choosing a different bedroom now and again in which to sleep. Little touches like towel rails, loo roll holders, shower fixtures, glass shelves make such a difference and Mr. Fix It seems to somehow magically deal with such detail, anticipating my desires. Everyone needs a Mr. Fix It!

The sun continues to shine and our evenings are blessed with soft peachy light as the moon takes hold and Venus shows us its glory in the western sky. Whilst Mr. Fix It has been – well fixing it – I have taken it upon myself to thoroughly clean some of our windows, many of which are full length. I have always loved full length windows, they lend a glamorous aspect to any property and in this climate they truly show off their glory. Our garden bedroom, still awaiting its balcony outside, sees the sun dancing in from early morning and sweeping away the dust from the huge windows has made a great difference as we awake. I look forward to the day, still some way off, when we plan our top floor with its 6 or 7 rooms waiting for the Mr. Fix It touch.

It’s true that one can get used to pretty much anything in time and so we have hardly noticed the pile of rubble which has remained in our garden, there being plenty of space to BBQ and sit outside in the evening warmth. Still, it was with a great sense of joy that I watched our builders finally removing this earlier this week and now we can see the space we have outside and begin to make our garden design. Before that however, we await our gas connection – helped by our Mayor who has put in a good word for us to Gaz de France – and it will soon be all systems go to install gas central heating ready for the winter.

Every sunset this week has been stunning but on Tuesday it truly took our breath away. We walked by the Canal du Midi with Eddie & Alfie and were astounded to see the entire sky develop the most beautiful colours I have ever seen: a vibrant blue, sharp pink and soft orange seemed to mingle together. There was no wind, the canal simply reflected the colours and it seemed as though everyone there was united in awe at this, one of nature’s spectacles. As the sun slowly lowered over the horizon and we watched the stars appear in this seemingly huge sky, we counted our blessings and wished that all of our loved ones could be with us to experience this, really quite spiritual moment.

www.FranceBuyingGuide.com

Two Fortuitous – and Very French - Meetings

Mr. Fix It picked up a call from Sandrine at the Mairie on Tuesday. We had heard word of plans to improve the area outside our house and in front of the Church (less than a stone’s throw away) and we were invited to meet right there at 6 pm with the Mayor, various neighbours and others, to find out what was planned and offer our views. This was the first time I had met our Mayor, a lovely teddy-bear like cuddly chap with a firm handshake. “Vous avez une belle maison la,” he told us (as if we didn’t know) “Le village vous plait?”. A resounding yes from us, many handshakes later, our views of the proposed improvements taken into account, we looked forward to a one to one meeting at the Mairie a couple of days later.

This first meeting was fortuitous because we were able to mention our application to have natural gas installed up to our house ahead of the winter. Since the Mairie are planning works to improve the “place de l’Eglise”, our application would surely be met with some interest and priority.

So it was that yesterday we had an audience with the Mayor in his office. He had already been in touch with “Gaz de France” to ask them to treat our application with some urgency. Digging up the road outside to connect our gas should obviously be done ahead of the proposed works for the village. Time and chance was again on our side.

I asked our Mayor if he was happy about so many English people coming to live in this beautiful part of France. “We welcome English people” he told me. “People are people and the English folk who live here are happy to integrate into the French way of life. I hope you are happy here too” he said with a twinkle in his eye. I told him about this blog and he was keen to include it in our village website. It takes two to tango, I thought. If you are prepared to take an interest in your surroundings, the people who live in your community in France, you will be rewarded with friendliness and warmth.

So we await our gas connection and meanwhile can look ahead to a warm winter, log fires in every room and the ambient background heat from our future central heating. For the moment, however, the sun still shines bright and strong, summer is not yet over and the shadows in the early evening sun are long.

The wine harvest has begun in earnest and we have watched many a tall tractor go by ready to pick up the heavy grapes from the vines to take back to the “caves” which abound in this area. The vines last some 25 years or more, grow for around 2 to 3 years before they are harvested and we are spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing a decent bottle. This, after all, is the largest wine growing area in France.

Yesterday evening I took a walk around our village as the sun gave out its last peachy rays. This is always a special time here: the light is soft and warm and one is unlikely to see more than a tractor or grape picker on the roads. I arrived back at our house to see the sun flooding through the stained glass window on the half landing from the west. Aside from realising that our marble staircase could do with a dust or two (a minor impediment in the greater scheme of things), I thought to myself that here is where I would rather be: we have the time and energy to nurture this house and Mr. Fix It and I consider that we have found our home.

www.francebuyingguide.com/guide.htm

Time and Chance

The paths we take in life, I have frequently thought, depend to a large extent on time and chance. Some people we meet, some places we go can be either a momentary diversion or a life-changing experience. There are times when had we gone the other way, taken a different job or bought a different house, we would not have followed the same path. Life may have been entirely different. I feel constantly lucky that I met my husband, the notorious Mr. Fix It, relatively late in life and that we both held the same dream: to find and then live in a beautiful house in France.

We have been here for almost exactly 6 months now, and I can scarcely remember a day when the sun did not shine. We are often asked if we miss anything about the UK and in truth we simply do not. We are surrounded by vineyards, mountains, space and never fail to feel our spirits lift as we drive out from our village, eyeing the Pyrenees, still snow-capped, away in the distance, watching the dappled light fall beneath the plane trees.

We have been blessed with a visit from my dear mother-in-law and sister-in-law this week and have seen our surroundings anew through their eyes. “People don’t seem to hurry here,” said Pam, my sister-in-law, “they seem somehow more content with their lot. There is less fear here, life is to be enjoyed”. Indeed, Pam has been so taken with the area, she decided to stay a while longer: there is much to see down here and the tranquillity has given her not only the ability to rest but to have renewed vigour before she goes back to her life in the UK.

Mr. Fix It and I have thought back to the last 6 months and to what we have achieved in this huge house. It is a process of enjoying life to the fullest whilst still planning on the next stage of renovation. Our kitchen plan is perfect on paper and when I look into this large room, light flooding through from east to west in the morning and the reverse in the evening, I can visualise how it will be when the wood floor is down throughout, the sink is sited underneath the west window and the granite worktops are in place. As I look through to the garden I can see our family and friends sitting around a large table only lit by candles, music playing through our huge speakers (already in place in fact) in the ready-made alcove. This, along with installing central heating, will be our next large phase of renovation. Much though I have become used to making do with our mini oven, makeshift worktops and rudimentary cupboard space, I know I will be thrilled to have a large and beautiful kitchen, the heart of the home.

So this week has been about planning and making time for our family. We enjoyed a wonderful day out to the great city of Narbonne, ambled around the cathedral cloisters, walked along the avenue of trees by the canal and soaked up the summer atmosphere.


It is hard to believe that half a year has gone by since we crossed the Channel to begin our adventure and life here in France; enough time, one might say, to become familiar with our surroundings but not nearly enough to complete this massive project. We have found that somehow it is possible to enjoy the journey and live life to the full whilst looking forward to the end result. Time and chance have looked on us kindly so far and for that we are eternally grateful.



Alexis
http://www.francebuyingguide.com/